On Friday 4th September, I visited the North Norfolk Railway for its’ annual Autumn Steam Gala, and what an event. Before it had even started, on the Thursday, two locomotives had to be withdrawn for the event. Black 5 45337 had leaky tubes and SR West Country Class 34007 Wadebridge had been stuck on the…
One of the worst kept secrets of steam locomotive colour schemes was discovered a long time before Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Castle (click here for more). It is a secret that many of a western persuasion would probably keep to themselves… The secret being that Great Western Railway locomotives painted red look very good.
If you ask a railway enthusiast to name a great locomotive works, you could get many replies. Doncaster, Derby, Swindon, Crewe, Eastleigh, St Rollox, Darlington, Brighton… a list could on and on. But these days things are different, most of the former works have declined, disappeared or evolved into a new use. However, there are…
No visit to the Bluebell Railway is complete without a peak inside the engine shed, which is home to the largest collection of locomotives of (UK) Southern origin. The Bluebell Line has another remarkable claim to fame to add to this – it has the largest collection of BR Standard Classes. Indeed, this collection is…
56xx 5643 was one of three locomotives in steam on the day I visited the Bluebell Line (click here to read more). The others being SECR H class 263 and SECR C class 592. The locomotive is on loan to the Bluebell Line from the Furness Rail Trust until December 2014.
A trip to the Watercress Line is always well worth it and this visit was no exception! The railway has a large fleet of locomotives that is regularly supplemented by visitors. What made this visit particularly special was of course the Heritage DMU Thumper Unit 1125 (click here for more) celebrating ten years since withdrawal…
As I passed by on the Watercress Line’s Heritage DMU Thumper Unit 1125 (click here for more), I spied a visitor sitting in Ropley loco yard sitting next to a class 08 diesel shunter (click here for more), as can be seen in the picture above. The visitor was BR Standard class 7MT 70000 Britannia,…
Those of you who follow this blog on Facebook may know that it was my birthday a few weeks ago. I was fortunate to have been gifted a new model by Mrs Locoyard, chosen because she knew how I love the Bluebell Railway – the heritage railway where the prototype of this locomotive runs. So…
During the Saturday of the Watercress Line Spring Steam Gala 2014, this magnificent locomotive spent the day at Ropley. It was (as Simon described it) playing the role of the Thunderbird – the rescue locomotive. It was good to see this big powerful locomotive again, after it’s long stay at the Bluebell Railway.
Locoyard’s 00 scale model reviews section (click here to read) nearly has all ready to run BR Standard class models reviewed. Hornby’s version of the 4MT (75xx) 4-6-0 model is regarded as one of the best out there and has a direct competitor from Bachmann (click here to read the review). Today we look at…
Loco Yard 